We are currently hosted on a resold Alabanza platform and have reached a point where we need a dedicated server. We have an in-house person with intermediate UNIX admin experience (has adminstrated a FreeBSD/Apache system for about 6 months). We have selected a hosting provider (he wants FreeBSD instead of Linux) and we have the option to use the Plesk Web-based administrator. We are planning on hosting a couple dozen different web sites, 2 of them fairly complex, dynamic scripted sites using lots of Perl and mySQL, the remaining 22 sites are simple static sites with just a couple pages and are all very similar.

My Intermediate UNIX administrator's expertise is growing quickly and he is pretty meticulous now about setting up security, blocking ports, etc. However, this is not this person's primary job. We want the lowest maintenance solution with the most flexibility. The Alabanza control panel has served us well to this point.

I am wondering whether or not using Plesk will limit too much the ability for this UNIX Admin to "do his thing" or whether it will help him, and help us use him less since we can use it ourselves too. Can the Admin tweak the configuration of the server outside of Plesk when he/she wants without messing up Plesk? I saw a note on the Plesk FAQ that says creating directories and changing permissions via FTP instead of Plesk can screw things up. I also saw another comment on this site that "Plesk has problems with CGI" -- whatever that means.

Our sites rely heavily on Perl and mySQL. Will we my UNIX Admin-by night hate me for ordering the server with Plesk installed?

jcrist,

Have you tried the webmin administrator, which allows you to do all server administration via the web, http://www.webmin.com

This is an excellent user control panel, and is very powerfull so be carefull. Easy to setup and fully documented.

Yeah but can you add POP boxes for the user with WEBMIN? So far I can't see how.


LMK

Plesk is an excellent interface. The only cgi problems we have on a regular basis is the end users place them in the wrong directory or set the wrong permissions. Plesk support is great also, they are very responsive.

Let me balance this out...

I'm sure this will depend on the needs of your particular server/domains and users...

but for me, Plesk is evil. ;)

I bought a dedicated box and asked for webmin. They installed plesk because the newest version had just come out for redhat 7 and *thought* I would want it. I had heard all sorts of horror stories about plesk and had intended to avoid it.

Well, for a few months, while attempting to get my sites up and running with cgi, mysql, php and vbulletin (with qmail for plesk and not sendmail) I fought daily with the config.

I was constantly having to tweak this or tweak that to work around plesk.

Still, I couldn't get my email notifications and password reminders to work with plesk. The only way to get my users the ability to have email notifications for new posts on vb, was to open all the email up...Of course, making my server vulnerable to spam routing.

I couldn't do with that.

I had a great VBulletin tech guy help me move all my server files up in the directory and he "uninstalled" the evil plesk.

He had to reconfig the server, install apache, php and mysql and zend....(those had been installed with plesk as part of an automatic server set up by the evil plesk)

So, my server is now plesk free. I'm still configuring the server and messing with what should have been simpler....if I hadn't had to fight with plesk and the after effects all this time.

Plesk support? Not good for me. When I needed help to secure my server with the email relaying for the vbulletin emails, they couldn't/wouldn't find a solution for me.

I can't recommend it. Nope, I can't wing through those pop accounts easily using webmin...but this I can learn. Its predictable. Plesk, was a nightmare for my server.

just my $.02

Webmin is an EXCELLENT admin panel, I HIGHLY recommend it.
However, it does not have customer control panels.

I had some other links...to panels who DID have this...I'll see if I can find them for you.

I have one question does Plesk allow you to create reseller facilities, for your clients, allowing them to create there own domains.usernames.emails and dns settings like the cpanel, and whm does?

Hello,

I heard PLESK is going to release that feature in their next release, which is somewhere in the summer 2001.

Originally posted by cabalstudios
I have one question does Plesk allow you to create reseller facilities, for your clients, allowing them to create there own domains.usernames.emails and dns settings like the cpanel, and whm does?

I heard from Plesk that they are also going to release a manage server version that will allow you to administer all of your servers that run Plesk from a centralized location.

Hello Hyper Tech,

Is this true? Do you know when will they release the feature you are talking about. I know they are going to release a major release this summer, but not sure about what will be in it.

Originally posted by Hyper Tech
I heard from Plesk that they are also going to release a manage server version that will allow you to administer all of your servers that run Plesk from a centralized location.

Originally posted by Asia
Hello Hyper Tech,

Is this true? Do you know when will they release the feature you are talking about. I know they are going to release a major release this summer, but not sure about what will be in it.



The information I have is in PDF so I can't paste it here. Apparently it's going to be called PSA-E and will have all the options of CPanel/WHM plus the enterprise wide centralized control of all your Plesk servers.

Hello,

Do you have the url so I can check out the .pdf ?


Originally posted by Hyper Tech


The information I have is in PDF so I can't paste it here. Apparently it's going to be called PSA-E and will have all the options of CPanel/WHM plus the enterprise wide centralized control of all your Plesk servers.

OK, I uploaded to a server and will leave there until later.
Already took it off..It's later :)

Hyper Tech,

Thank you!